My son is 24 and has a three-and-a-half-your-old child, with a high school sweetheart. He was just diagnosed as being cannabis addicted and was sent to the Department of Community Corrections, the DCC, by a voluntary drug court program that he signed up for so he could clear his record, not add to it.

The use of marijuana is where this party started, and from the first use it has been madness. My son was in high school, but marijuana became all he could think about. It changed his course. College was no longer a priority, or baseball or girls. He went from being a popular young man – with baseball, basketball, and track options for college, who worked with youth at church, a loving young man – to a fast track to Hell for him and everyone who loved him.

Marijuana made my son hateful, and he would run through Jesus to get it. He went through three rehabs in high school, but that and no amount of punishment would stop him from using it. Now he has been to 38 rehab programs, all over the country, and several commitments to mental health programs as well. He started with marijuana and has now done everything.

He was clean, he thought, when he signed up for the voluntary drug court program. But he was still using CBD – cannabidiol – in his vape pen. He tested positive for THC from using a product that is advertised to be non-addictive, as well as non-detectable in drug screens. Not true, he found out.

We cannot fight this drug and its addiction quietly or in shame. We have to educate our children younger.

My son says if he could change one thing in his life, it would be the first time he tried marijuana.

Contributed by Mechelle a mom from Arkansas.